Taft Union High School's FFA Wildcat Welders placed fifth overall and one team member, Josh Hawkins, took fourth high individual at the state finals welding competition held at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo on Saturday at the State FFA Finals Field Day organized by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The Wildcat Welders also won first Place Team in General Knowledge and 3rd Place Team in Job Portfolio. Senior Josh Hawkins, junior Justin Studer, junior Blake Arndt, and sophomore Nick Keys competed against the top 20 welding teams and 79 welding students from FFA chapters around the state.

At the contest each student competed in the 5 components of the FFA Agriculture Welding Contest (job portfolio, written job application, weld inspection, weld application, and general knowledge test).